When the script of "The Departed" called for Jack Nicholson's gang lord character to meet a violent end in a lonely spot, filmmakers shot the star's death scene at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. In all, filmmakers for "The Departed," which garnered last year's Oscar for Best Picture, worked at the shipyard for more than a month.
That wasn't the only time moviemakers found what they needed in Quincy. A second highly rated movie made largely in Massachusetts, "Gone Baby Gone," used the Quincy quarries and the adjacent Granite Links Golf Club as locations. Quincy officials believe the film industry, which received star billing in Governor Deval Patrick's State of the Commonwealth address for its economic growth potential, will be able to find even more locations, business services, and local assistance through the newly instituted Quincy Film Bureau.
Given changes in the state's moviemaking tax-credit law last year that made it a highly desirable site for the industry, city officials think the time is right to advertise Quincy's attractions and availability. The film bureau, a branch of the city's tourism agency, Discover Quincy, will offer "one-stop shopping" for filmmakers. Mark Carey, executive director of Discover Quincy, said he plans to become the answer man for filmmakers' questions about the city and serve as a liaison to agencies such as the mayor's office, the Police and Parks departments, and to local businesses.
"Whether it's ocean, golf courses, Marina Bay, urban, real nice suburban, the woods, or the untouched marshes in Hough's Neck, we have it," Carey said. "We want to make Quincy film friendly." The city has 27 miles of coastline, he noted. Quincy also can compete with Boston for film business because overhead costs such as rent and parking are lower.
Moviemakers attracted to Massachusetts locations - and the state's generous tax-credit law - need local permits, but for entertainment businesses new to the state, it's not easy to find out how to get them or whom to contact. Quincy's film bureau will offer one place to provide that information for filmmakers.
"I will be the guy they're calling all the time," Carey said.
When he brought his proposal before the City Council last month, the initiative was a hit with councilors, in part because it required no new funding. Carey will devote the resources of his tourism promotion agency to the new bureau. It's a hit with the state's film office as well.
"It's a great idea," said Nicholas Paleologos, executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office. "I wish I had a film office in every community." So far, Boston is the only other place in Massachusetts that has one.
Paleologos said that someone on the ground in a given community is in the best position to help moviemakers scout locations, walk through a permit process, find parking and transportation, or find other business services through ties to the local chamber of commerce.
The bill that raised to 25 percent the state tax credit on film production costs in Massachusetts was signed into law last July. That law also exempts production costs from the state sales tax. The results have been dramatic, Paleologos said. Three years ago, the filmmaking industry spent $6 million in the state. Two years ago, two production companies spent $50 million in Massachusetts. Last year, eight major films spent $125 million - and seven of them came to the state after the tax credit was increased. The spending graph, Paleologos said, "looks like a hockey stick."
Industry spending includes meals taxes, gas taxes, and hotel taxes in addition to salaries, retail, and other commercial expenditures, providing a boost to the local economy. The US Department of Commerce calculates the economic ripple effect from entertainment spending as 2.8 times the money spent.
The film industry, Paleologos said, is "one of the few places in this recession where we have more jobs than people to fill them." While filmmakers tend to stumble onto Quincy - "most of the films came here by osmosis," Carey said - the city wants to take advantage of its nearness to the region's hub and range of landscapes so that production studios won't be accidental tourists.
In addition to "The Departed" and "Gone Baby Gone," two films to be released also have used Quincy locations in the last year - "The Box," a Hollywood movie starring Cameron Diaz and Nicholas Cage, and "21," which used Quincy Center and the MBTA for locations. Altogether, filmmaking in Quincy has added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the local economy, Carey told the City Council.
Carey also thinks the time is right to link film with Quincy's tourism-promotion efforts because an upcoming HBO miniseries on John Adams was filmed in Quincy. "It's called 'John Adams,' " Carey said, but "you might just as well have called it Quincy," the city figures so largely in it.
Produced by Tom Hanks and based on David McCullough's book on the life of the second president whose Quincy home is a national park site, the seven-part series is scheduled to be broadcast next month.
If millions of people see Quincy on their screen, Carey said, some will want to visit the place where the film was made.
Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.
